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A holy water font or stoup is a vessel containing holy water which is generally placed near the entrance of a church. It is often placed at the base of a crucifix or other Christian art. It is used in Catholic, as well as many Lutheran and Anglican churches, to make the sign of the cross using the holy water upon entrance of the church. [1]
Holy water fonts have been identified as a potential source of bacterial and viral infection. In the late-19th century, bacteriologists found staphylococci, streptococci, coli bacilli, Loeffler's bacillus, and other bacteria in samples of holy water taken from a church in Sassari, Italy. [11]
At the Vespers of this feast, a font of holy water is typically blessed in the church, to provide holy water for the parish's use in the coming year. The next morning, after the Divine Liturgy a procession goes from the church to a nearby river, lake or other body of water, to bless that water as well.
A modern baptismal font in the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston, constructed in 2008. A baptismal font is an ecclesiastical architectural element, which serves as a receptacle for baptismal water used for baptism, as a part of Christian initiation for both rites of infant and adult baptism. [1]
[2] [1] In the present-day, canthari are found in Eastern Christian and Oriental Christian churches, though in Western Christianity (especially in the Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Anglican traditions) the cantharus gradually transformed into the holy water font. [1] [6]
The interior of the church Holy water font. Inside the church to either side of the entrance are the two halves of an enormous shell (Tridacna gigas) given to King Francis I by the Venetian Republic. They function as holy water fonts and rest on rock-like bases sculpted by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. [14]